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HEAT publishes three annual reports, corresponding with educational Levels 2 to 4+, to investigate the impact of the outreach and inreach delivered by its members on the progression and success of it participants.

  • Report 1: Level 2* – Key Stage 4 attainment with school comparison
  • Report 2: Level 3* – Key Stage 5 with school and college comparison, Progression to Level 3 in school or college and Level 3 completion
  • Report 3: Level 4+ – Access to Higher Education, Continuation and attainment in Higher Education, Progression to postgraduate studies and Employment
  • Report 1a: Level 2* – Optional re-run based on a subset of participants available
  • Report 2a: Level 3* – Optional re-run based on a subset of participants available
  • Report 3a: Level 4+* – Access to Higher Education contextualised with prior attainment at KS4 and KS5 (based on a linked dataset joining National Pupil Database, Individual Learner Record and HESA outcomes)

*underlying dataset not available

Report 1 (Level 2) Attainment at Key Stage 4

Report 1 investigates the effect of outreach delivered by our members on exam results at Key Stage 4 (GCSE). For this report, the Department for Education match one cohort of outreach participants at a time to their GCSE attainment data. This data is then prepared for the HEAT membership by the HEAT Data Team within the Office for National Statistics’ Secure Research Service.

In our latest HEAT-KS4 Impact Report we take a closer look at students successfully tracked into the 2021 GCSE cohort who participated in at least five hours of pre-16 attainment-raising outreach recorded on HEAT. We explore what types of students participated in attainment-raising outreach and how participating in attainment-raising outreach impacted on their KS4 attainment outcomes.

 

Our key findings include:

 

  • The majority of learners engaged by HEAT member providers in attainment-raising outreach had ‘average’ or ‘low’ prior attainment at KS2. This shows effective targeting of outreach by HEAT member providers to those students most at risk of failing to achieve at KS4.
  • Uni Connect partnerships engaged more learners in the ‘low’ prior attainment band than higher education providers, both in absolute and relative terms. This suggests that Uni Connect is reaching the most educationally disadvantaged learners, which higher education provider may not reach on their own.
  • A larger proportion of FSM learners with ‘average’ prior attainment, who participated in attainment-raising outreach, achieved standard and strong passes in Maths and English than their non-participating peers. This suggests that learners eligible for FSM with ‘average’ attainment at KS2 benefitted the most from participating in attainment-raising outreach.

To find out more, please visit the HEAT-Key Stage 4 Impact Report webpage or access the full report in the File Store (HEAT members only).

 

Individual HEAT members can access their institution specific Report 1 (Key Stage 4 Attainment Track Report) in the HEAT File Store (limited to specific Roles and subject to sufficient sample size), where they can also find the Key Stage 4 Attainment Track Power BI Dashboard.

Report 2 (Level 3) Attainment at Key Stage 5

The HEAT dataset is matched with the Department for Education National Pupil Database (NPD) to compare the Key Stage 5 attainment of HEAT outreach participants with their school or college average.

 

A new Key Stage 5 Performance report (Report 2), based an aggregate data from all HEAT members, will soon be available to download from the File Store. Individual members can access their institution specific Report 2 in the HEAT File Store (subject to sufficient sample size).

Report 3 (Level 4+) Progression to Higher Education

Report 3 looks at the effect of outreach delivered by our members on the Higher Education student lifecycle, from access to HE through to employment.

 

For this report the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) match our participant database to their data on enrolment, continuation and attainment, and progression into postgraduate study or employment. This allows us to look at the outcomes of our outreach and inreach participants against the full student lifecycle, from access to employment.

 

Our latest HE Provider HEAT-HESA Track Impact Report (based on HE entry up to 2021/22) found that:

 

  • Students who took part in an intensive package of outreach consisting of at least eight contact hours are 12.5 percentage points more likely to enter Higher Education than a closely matched group of students who took part in less than three hours of outreach.
  • In particular, Further Education students appear to benefit from participating in intensive outreach with those in receipt being more than 17 percentage points more likely to enter Higher Education than their peers in receipt of little to no outreach.
  • Once in Higher Education, outreach participants show similar continuation and degree attainment success rates to the national average.

To find out more, please visit the HE Provider HEAT-HESA Track Impact Report.

 

You can also read the latest Uni Connect HEAT-HESA Track Impact Report, which uses data recorded by all Uni Connect Partnerships using HEAT.

 

Members are also able to interrogate their HESA Track data via our HESA Track Power BI Dashboard.

Banner image courtesy of the University of Kent